1. Field
The present invention relates generally to a refrigerator and a method of manufacturing a door of the refrigerator. More particularly, the present invention relates to a refrigerator provided at the front surface thereof with a decorative member and a method of manufacturing a door of the refrigerator.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a refrigerator is designed to supply cold air generated from an evaporator through a refrigeration cycle to a storeroom to allow freshness of various foodstuffs to be preserved for a long time. The refrigerator mainly includes a body forming a storeroom to store foodstuffs and a door rotatably coupled to the body to open/close the storeroom.
Recently, the door is provided at the front surface thereof with a decorative member, made, for example, of wood or tempered glass, to improve the external appearance of the refrigerator. In order to manufacture the door of the refrigerator, an opening is formed in a single metallic plate by cutting out the central portion of the single metallic plate, and the edge portion of the single metallic plate is notched and bent to form a foaming space where a foaming agent is provided.
However, since the door is made from the single metallic plate, a cutting section may occur when forming the opening at the center of the door or when notching the edge portion of the door. Such a cutting section wastes the metallic plate, so the manufacturing cost for the door may increase.
In addition, since the high-expensive metallic plate is used even in regions of the door where great rigidity and strength are not necessary, the manufacturing cost and the weight of the door may increase.
Further, since the single metallic plate is bent at a right angle, not only strength of the edge portion becomes weak, but also the foaming agent is filled in a cavity defined by the edge portion. Thus, a large amount of the foaming agent is necessary, causing an increase in manufacturing cost for the door.